Ever since Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical version of Billy Wilder’s classic movie opened in London last July to mixed reviews, the rumor dragon has been exhaling hot hints that LuPone might not make it to Broadway, despite the fact that her contract stipulated she would star in New York. Frank Rich, The New York Times drama critic (who is now a Times op-ed columnist), had written that despite LuPone’s “powerhouse” singing she was “miscast and unmoving.” When the Los Angeles production opened in December, Vincent Canby reviewed it for the Times and proclaimed that Close had “become a big, exciting new star of the American musical of the 1990s.” As the philosopher Descartes said about Broadway producers, “I read the Times, therefore I am.” Cognoscenti and ignoranti figured LuPone was dead.
Still, for months composer-producer Lloyd Webber waffled, not-quite saying LuPone would be replaced, not-quite saying she wouldn’t. At one point in this Chinese water torture, LuPone told Liz Smith: “If I’m being replaced, I haven’t seen the check yet, and a million dollars won’t cover it.” This was echoed last week by LuPone’s press agent, Robert Garlock, who told NEWSWEEK: “They have to buy Patti out of her contract now for a substantial amount, in the multimillions.” While LuPone is spelunking in one of Lloyd Webber’s deep pockets, Close will be strip-mining the other one. Close has pointed out that in doing one movie she can make three times the salary she can make in the show Lloyd Webber, whose fortune has been estimated at between $275 million and $450 million, is going to make two women very rich.
Neither LuPone nor Close was talking, but LuPone clearly feels betrayed by the man who made her the Tony-winning star of his 1979 “Evita” on Broadway. And Close (who’s won two Tonys) was said by Lloyd Webber’s spokesman Peter Brown to be worried that she’d be seen as an Eve Harrington – the sneaky opportunist in the movie “All About Eve.” “Sir Andrew is sensitive to Patti,” said Brown. “But this is a $12 million show. We must come to Broadway with our strongest forces.” Despite his sensitivity, Lloyd Webber had yet to speak to LuPone. Sooner or later the shy little Brit will have to confront the fiery Sicilian. That may be Patti’s best scene.
